Coming Soon: The Adventures of The Princess and Mr. Whiffle.

Or rather, let me tell you a story about a story. (For those of you who know me, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.)

Back in 2001, when I was toiling in the salt mines of grad school, my girlfriend Sarah and I had very different sleep schedules. I was up late, and she went to bed early.

One night, when she was going to bed, she jokingly asked me to tell her a story.

So I did, starting with with the most saccharine faerie-tale beginning I could think of: “Once upon a time,” I said. “There was a Princess who lived in a Marzapan castle….”

The story was so cute and sweet that it began to irritate me even as I was telling it. And so I twisted it around until it was something entirely different. Something dark and strange. An older sort of Faerie tale.

When I finished, Sarah lay in bed, looking up at me with big eyes. “Now I can’t sleep,” she said.

So I told a second ending to the story. A sweet ending. A funny ending. A happy ending. An ending that made everything all better again. Sarah relaxed.

But that second ending irritated me again. It was too sweet and perfect.

So I gave the story a third ending. The perfect ending. An ending with teeth in it.

That night Sarah didn’t get to sleep in any sort of timely fashion, but the next day she told some friends about it. I repeated the story for them, and one of them said, “I’d love to draw that.”

Now a lot of times, that’s where things would stop. But the friend who spoke up was none other than Nathan Taylor: he’s the guy that drew the map for the US edition of the book. And he turned my puerile scrawlings for the Worldbuilder logo…

Into something cool and respectable looking:

I knew Nate was a great cartoonist and illustrator, as you can see for yourself over here or here.

But he completely blew me away with the illustrations he did for the Princess book. Here’s a little taste:

(Awww…)

Just yesterday, Subterranean Press announced The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: the Thing Beneath the Bedon their website, making it available for pre-order.

So I wanted to mention it here on the blog as quickly as possible. Apparently it’s been selling really quickly, and the limited leatherbound edition they’re printing is already half sold-out. So if you want one of those, you should get over there and order it sooner rather than later.

Edit: Apparently everyone wanted a limited edition, so they sold out about 9:00 this morning. Sorry about that. I don’t think anyone expected it to sell quite so quickly as that.

That said, it’s only the limited edition that sold out. There are still regular hardcovers available.

Also, Bill over at Subterranean Press has offered to throw five ARC copies of the princess book in with his other donations to Worldbuilders. If you win one of those, you get to see the finished product months before it comes out.

Five ARC copies of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: the Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss and Nathan Taylor. Signed by the Author.

It’s a picture book that’s not for children. I can say with some certainty that it should never be read to children. But it’s perfect for adults with a dark sense of humor and a love of old-school faerie tales.

Stay tuned. We still have a lot more to come. New blogs every day or so…

Now we have a problem. You see, I got all excited and purchased the book, but it won’t be out until July. I just got married. I haven’t changed my name yet (although it will happen real soon) and when I do, the name on my credit card will change. So now I’m scared of changing my name in case the payment isn’t scheduled to go out until July. I don’t preorder often, so I don’t know how these things work. Eeep

The book looks great. I’m a big fan of illustrated-kids’-books-for-adults. Although, come to think of it, I can’t actually recall ever having read one…still, I’m looking forward to seeing this. Also, Mr. Taylor’s artwork looks brilliant. It’s crisp and clean, yet maintains an almost wistful quality (which is ironic given the nature of the book you describe) much like Bill Watterson’s style. Looking at it, I can almost imagine a “The Name of the Wind” graphic novel…you should tell Mr. Taylor that he could be the next Todd McFarlane…

rip

WV: stumat – a subcategory of hazmat, or hazard materials, describing week-old leftover soup one finds in the back of the refrigerator.

Half an hour ago I was thinking: ‘Oh, it’s not so bad you spend €30 this weekend renting bad and worse movies while you should have been studying for exams and now you don’t even have any money to put on the phone so you can call your mother to ask her if she might be able to pick you up at the station because there wasn’t going to be a bus for another hour and it was raining and you were cold and you had a headache and if she please, please wanted to come over so you didn’t have to go insane just sitting still for over an hour so you didn’t have to walk through the rain, through the cold for over 6km.’

Now I can’t buy the book nor afford money for my phone. At least I saw some crap-ass movies this weekend. *sigh*

Of course I wanted a limited but I reserved a trade because the limited was sold out. Pat could have written two words on a napkin and I will wear my old coat and still purchase it for $25 bucks. Awesome quote from the 1800’s clergyman by the way. Now how to convince myself to purchase the picture version… I already have like three ‘Name of the Winds’ with two gaping holes in my book case for books 2 and 3….

You had me at the part where I learned there was not one but three endings. I know it’s less than three weeks to Christmas–I guess I’ll count this as an early (or late) present to myself! Also, what a great way to pass the time until books 2 and 3.

Wow, just wow Ivan. That is just disrespectful and disgraceful. You can present a different view on a topic without being so cruel.

In response to that, I may not have read this book yet, but having read Name of the Wind, I assume that Patrick Rothfuss is a perfectionist, because that book was near perfect. Therefore, for Patrick to release this, he must feel that it is pretty entertaining and well written book. Just because something doesn’t suit your particular taste, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a REAL BOOK. I’m not a fan of Sarah Palin, but I would never say that her book, even if she didn’t really write it, wasn’t a real book, because someone somewhere spent hours upon hours shaping it.

Books are works of love, so maybe next time show a little class and lighten up on the hate.

And I am very excited for the story. I love adultish fairy tales or re imaginings of those tales. I recommend The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, a beautiful, dark tale that re imagines several classic fairy tales with dark twists.

While I haven’t seen any of the other illustrations from the book, the few that I have lend me to believe they will be great. Maybe some prints of a particular badass print would sell/auction/inspire well for the worldbuilders auction. I know the “luring the draccus” is already teasing my wallet, why not go for broke. :)

I agree with Tyson…I’m seriously broke and even asked the artist of Luring the Draccus (very VERY nice guy if he could hold one for me), but the book! it’s $25! I’ll buy it now even if I don’t have the money…

And shame on you Mr. Fussy! (for putting some of us in debt and for telling us late). Some of us collect books and would have liked a limited edition…. :( thanks a lot…

I had the pleasure of having Mr. Rothfuss read this story to me this past summer. It is wonderful and I would read it to my 6 year old son, of course my 6 year old son’s first story was The Call of Cthulhu and he just had a heated discussion with his cousin about hope Santa and the Tooth Fairy were not real, but ghosts and aliens were, so there you go.

Saw the announcement email from SubPress and quickly ordered the limited! I’ve learned not to rest on my laurels with SubPress releases, especially ones that are a fraction of what some of their other limited editions cost =) I can’t wait to get it. I love faerie tales, especially ones for adults, cause really we’re all kids at heart. That said, Nate’s drawings look kick a**! His work is amazing and I hope that SubPress would pick him up to do other novels and/or covers after this. They hold just the right amount of sweetness, can’t wait to see what he does with the “teeth” part =)Anyways, good luck to you both and I’ll be donating soon for World Builders!

Wish I could order one, sadly I have no idea where I’ll be when it comes out, course I’ll probably end up ordering one when I do have a place that I know I’ll be for more than a month, if I remember to that is.

According to Subterranean Press’s blog, the preorder has already sold more than 1,000 of the planned 2,000 trade copies. Amazing! Also I feel more justified for preordering something for myself in December.

Also, could you (or some one else) please post the link to that site where the artist made the picture with the draccus, Kvothe, and Denna? I wanted to order one but I can’t seem to find the posting of it any more.